A US State Department employee was charged on Wednesday with lying to the FBI about her contacts with Chinese intelligence agents, who provided her with tens of thousands of dollars in gifts over five years in return for internal government information.

Candace Claiborne, 60, who worked for the State Department since 1999 and was arrested on Tuesday, held a Top Secret security clearance. She is also charged with obstructing an official proceeding. Both are felony offences with a maximum total sentence of 25 years in prison. 

After initially denying working for China, Ms Claiborne admitted to FBI agents on Tuesday that she had helped Chinese intelligence agents, including by providing “information about a dissident who was being secretly housed at the embassy,” according to a criminal complaint brought by Kellie O’Brien, an FBI counter-intelligence agent in Washington.